czsz
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The system herewith illustrated is the invention of Mr. Joe V. Meigs, of Lowell, Mass., and has been tested under conditions far more exacting than would be found in actual practice. The road is not a model, but a full-sized elevated railroad in every respect. This was made necessary .by a section in the act of the Massachusetts Legislature authorizing the incorporation of the Meigs Elevated Railway Company, which states that "no location for tracks shall be petitioned for in the city of Boston until at least one mile of the road has been built and operated, nor until the safety and strength of the structure and the rolling stock and motive power shall have been examined and approved by the board of railroad commissioners or by a competent engineer to be appointed by them." To fully demonstrate the possibilities of the road under widely varying circumstances, the company has built tracks of several kinds—wooden way of the cheapest possible kind; wooden way following the contour of the earth; wooden way with level grade secured by varying the heights of the posts; wooden way with very short curves and steep grades; and iron way upon high grades, increasing in height until a level of 14 feet in the clear above the earth was secured. The trial road, beginning at the shops of the company on Bridge St., East Cambridge, has one curve of 50 feet radius, 165 feet long, on a grade of 120 feet, and on level and curves has grades of 240 feet, 300 feet, and 345 feet. So far everything has worked in the most satisfactory manner, the train rounding the exceedingly sharp curves easily, and mounting the steep grades without trouble.
Much more here:
http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/odmeig.Html